The Romance of Food...or Not...

Cooked a steak last night that tasted like liver. Seriously. Liver. And I like liver, just not so much as flavoring for the steak. Wanted to throw the whole four pounds plus of the lousy London Broil out the window, but can't because I made too much of it and we are trying to waste less food. So now I am stuck with a whole bunch of extremely unappetizing dinners to look forward to. Sigh.

Anyway, the whole sorry episode got me thinking about food and how its used in romance and was wondering if anyone can recall extremely memorable disgusting meals? Or just maybe meals that are not so good. It's easy to recall the erotic meals and the candlelit dinner at the romantic restaurant is a staple of the romance genre. The best known movie example I can think of is Tom Jones and the dinner scene at the inn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tezjznL9NzM

Its lusty and funny and you just know they are going to devour each other in bed with equal gusto.

But what are some other ways food is used to demonstrate character and/or emotion? I am now thinking of the dinner party scene in Little Women wherein Jo cooks a meal because Marmee has given Hannah the night off. Jo can't cook and uses salt on the strawberries instead of sugar. Truly a terrible meal. But what I remember most about the scene is everyone refusing to eat, except Laurie who really likes Jo. He manfully shovels strawberries into his mouth as everyone else is pushing them away in disgust. His actions demonstrate his feelings for Jo, and if that's not romantic, I don't know what is.

So how about it? Any other memorable "bad food" scenes?

Also, if anyone knows how to make four pounds of liver-tasting London Broil palatable, please let me know! Thanks!